Even though the national Do Not Call registry has stopped most legitimate businesses from flooding consumers’ phone lines with unwanted robocalls, scam artists continue calling because they don’t really care about obeying the law in the first place. Thus, the Federal Trade Commission is offering a $50,000 prize for the person who can help put an end to robocalls.

Starting Oct. 25 and running through Jan. 17, 2013, the FTC will be accepting applications for the Robocall Challenge.

There will be three judging criteria for the competition: Does it work? (weighted at 50%); Is it easy to use? (25%); Can it be rolled out? (25%).

Though the FTC is putting up the reward cash, the agency says that applicants retain their intellectual property rights and that only the judges will see the applications.

Teams are encouraged, but corporations or organizations with more than 10 employees do not qualify for the Best Overall Solution award of $50,000. They are instead eligible for the Federal Trade Commission Technology Achievement Award, which doesn’t carry a cash prize.

All the info for the competition is at robocall.challenge.gov.

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